I remember our washing machine we had when I was a child. My mom had crippling arthritis from the time she was about 28 yrs. old until her death so a lot of the housework and laundry were the responsibility of my dad or my sister and I. We had a small dairy during the 1930's but it didn't bring in much money so dad and mom sold the cows. Dad had built a small concrete block building we called the "milk house" where we bottled and separated the milk. It had a cement floor with a drain on one corner for the water to drain away that we used to wash down the floor. The building later became the wash house. The washing machine was electric with a gas burner under the main part of the tub to heat the water. All the water to fill the washer and the tubs was from a garden hose hooked outside to a faucet in the backyard. We set a couple of wooden benches at the back of the washer and had two large galvanized tubs on them for rinsing the clothes. We had to fish the clothes out of the washer and dounce them up and down several times in the cold water to get the soap out and then put them thru the wringer. The washer had a short in the electric cord and every once inawhile when we'd be reaching down in the water to retrieve something to put thru the wringer, we'd get a good jolt of electricity. It was always scary and dad or mom warned us to not stand on a wet floor when we put our hands in the water. Years later the wash house became the dog house when mom decided to raise some Chihuahuas. It was one of these little dogs that later caused mom to fall and break her hip. She never walked again. juanita > Jeannie: Where I was born, in northern Vermont, my Dad was the ice > man. Somewhere here I have copies of his business card...is kinda > cute. His brother worked for him. > > As to the "fridge", our big thing was the washing machine. Remember > the old Bendix (spell?) with the window in the door? My friend's mom > had one of the first ones in town...we kids would literally sit in > front of it and watch the water splash against the door and the > clothes go round and round. It was a front loader. I now have a > Maytag front loader, and every time I use it I think of us sitting > around watching that Bendix work. Neysa